Voice-operated interface for DTMF-controlled systems

ABSTRACT

An arrangement for allowing “hands-free” access to DTMF-controlled systems, such as one&#39;s voice mail messaging systems, utilizes a speech-to-DTMF tone application that monitors the communication between the user and the DTMF-controlled system. A speech recognition unit is utilized to retrieve certain voice commands (e.g., “next”, “skip”, “repeat”, “forward”, etc.) when uttered by the user. The application then translates the received commands into the proper DTMF tone sequence used by the DTMF-controlled system and transmits the DTMF tones to the system. The application is particularly useful in the cell phone environment and avoids the necessity of the user to constantly switch between using the keypad and listening to messages/commands from the system.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present invention relates to an arrangement for accessingdual-tone multifrequency (DTMF)-controlled systems such as voicemessaging systems and, more particularly to a voice-operated (i.e.,“hands-free”) arrangement for accessing such DTMF-controlled systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Most conventional voice mail systems utilize a DTMF-controlledtelephony application to access the system and retrieve stored messages.In particular, a voice mail subscriber needs to enter his account number(and perhaps a password) to gain access to the system (where thesubscriber's telephone number may be used as the account number).Various DTMF tones are then used to progress through the voice mail menu(e.g., using a “#” sign to retrieve new messages, a “1” to deletemessages, a “2” to skip to the next message, etc.), where differentsystems may use different DTMF tones to control the message retrievalprocess. In general, there exist a variety of DTMF-controlled systems,such as interactive banking systems, hotel reservation systems, etc.,where one maneuvers through different levels of menus by entering DTMFtones on a telephone keypad.

[0003] Many individuals now use relatively small cell phones thatinclude the DTMF keypad on the same structure as the transmitter(microphone) and receiver (speaker). When using such a cell phone toaccess a DTMF-controlled system, the phone must constantly be movedbetween an individual's line-of-sight (to enter the proper DTMF tones)and his ear (to listen to messages or commands from the voice mailsystem). In another common scenario, many individuals now retrieve voicemail messages while traveling in their cars. While many car phones todayhave a “hands-free” option for dialing outbound calls (see, for example,U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,672), once the call has been established, the persontraveling in the car still needs to use the keypad on the car phone tofurther access different telecommunications-based services and systems.

[0004] Thus, a need remains in the art for an arrangement capable ofproviding “hands-free” access to and progress through anyDTMF-controlled telecommunications system, particularly when accessingsuch a system with a device such as a cell phone.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] The need remaining in the prior art is addressed by the presentinvention, which relates to an arrangement for accessing aDTMF-controlled system (such as, for example, a voice messaging system)and, more particularly to a voice-operated (i.e., “hands-free”)arrangement for accessing such a system.

[0006] In accordance with the present invention, a speech-to-DTMF toneapplication is provided for and accessed by a user wishing to interactwith a DTMF-controlled system in a “hands-free” manner. Thespeech-to-DTMF tone application is responsive to a user's initial voiceprompt (via a speech recognition unit) to allow access to theapplication and locate the proper user's record in the applicationdatabase. The speech-to-DTMF tone application looks up the user's accessnumber, dials out to the associated system and then connects the user tothe proper DTMF-controlled system. The application stays on the line and“listens” for predetermined voice commands from the user (i.e., “next”,“delete”, “repeat”, etc.). When such a voice command occurs, theapplication performs a translation from the command to the DTMF tonesused by that system, and forwards the proper tones to the system.

[0007] While “listening” for one of the predetermined voice commands,the speech-to-DTMF application allows all of the audio signals to alsopass through from the user to the DTMF-controlled system. The passage ofthe audio signals allows the user to speak to the system (such as whenrecording a message), as well as to directly use the system with theDTMF commands. Thus, the user may mix voice commands and DTMF commandswithout constraint.

[0008] In a preferred embodiment of the present invention when a userhas more than one DTMF-controlled system (such as in the case ofmultiple voice message accounts), the speech-to-DTMF tone application iscapable of processing through each system and transmitting theindividual tones recognized by each system.

[0009] The speech-to-DTMF tone application of the present invention maybe formed as either a network-based application or, alternatively, maybe embedded within an individual's cell phone.

[0010] Other and further aspects of the present invention will becomeapparent during the course of the following discussion and by referenceto the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] Referring now to the drawings,

[0012]FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network arrangement for deployingthe voice-activated DTMF-controlled system of the present invention;

[0013]FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram illustrating portions of thespeech-to-DTMF tone application of the present invention; and

[0014]FIG. 3 contains a flowchart of an exemplary process for a user tointeract with one or more voice mail accounts through the speech-to-DTMFtone application of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] A simplified network architecture 10 capable of supporting thevoice-operated interface of the present invention is illustrated inFIG. 1. For the sake of simplicity, a single user 12 is shown, althoughany communication is known to support thousands of such users. Inaccordance with the present invention, user 12 may be defined as anindividual utilizing a cell phone, a car phone, or any othercommunication device that may include the keypad on the same unit as thetransmitter (microphone) and receiver. However, the speech-to-DTMF toneapplication may also be used with any type of telephone device and, assuch, may be useful to those with limited abilities to use a keypad fora variety of reasons (eyesight problems, hand control problems, etc.).It is to be understood that as an alternative to the network-basedarrangement of FIG. 1, the speech-to-DTMF tone application of thepresent invention may be implemented as a stand-alone application withinthe user's telecommunication device (e.g., cell phone).

[0016] Referring back to FIG. 1, user 12 employs the speech-to-DTMF toneapplication of the present invention by first dialing a predefinedtelephone number to access a speech server 14 supporting aspeech-to-DTMF tone application 16. This communication is generallyestablished, in the architecture as shown in FIG. 1, through a set ofcommunication switches 18 forming a communication network 20 (in oneexample, network 20 may comprise the public switched telephone network,commonly referred to as the PSTN). Once communication is establishedwith speech server 14, user 12 will be prompted to enter voice commandsto identify himself (and, perhaps, further password information) andallow speech-to-DTMF tone application 16 to locate the proper userrecord 22, where an exemplary user record 22 will be described in detailbelow in association with the discussion of FIG. 2. Upon locating theproper user record 22, application 16 will launch a telephone call tothe associated DTMF-controlled system 24, then bridge together theincoming call from user 12 with this call to DTMF-controlled system 24.One example of such a DTMF-controlled system is a voice messaging system(which uses various DTMF tones—or combination of tones—to controlmessage playback and responses, such as “forward”, “next”, “skip”,etc.). Various other DTMF-controlled systems include bank accesssystems, reservation systems, etc. In general, the speech-to-DTMFapplication of the present invention is equally applicable to all suchsystems. Throughout this discussion, the operation of the presentinvention will often be discussed in terms of a “voice mail messagingsystem”. It is to be presumed, however, that the inventive technique isequally applicable to all such systems.

[0017] Application 16 will stay on the call, listening for predeterminedvoice prompts from user 12 as the call progresses through theDTMF-controlled system, such as a message retrieval process. Forexample, the voice prompts may include commands such as “next”, “skip”,“back”, “first”, “delete”, etc. Indeed, virtually each command used by aDTMF-controlled system may be implemented as a voice prompt from user12. Application 16 is then used to translate the recognized prompts intothe proper DTMF tone (or tones) utilized by the system 24 currentlybeing accessed. These tones are then played out to the voice messagingsystem by the speech server's player 27. Speech player 27 may also playverification prompts back to user 12. For example, when application 16determines that the user spoke the word “delete”, application 16 candirect player 27 to prompt user 12 back with a confirmation response of“deleted”.

[0018] User 12 may interact directly with the DTMF-controlled system atany time during the interaction through speech-to-DTMF tone application16. Referring to FIG. 1, if user 12 presses a key on his/her phone tosend a DTMF tone (or tones) to the system, that tone(s) will be carrierthrough the network to speech server 14, then carried through the callbridge in server 14 back to the network, and finally to DTMF-controlledsystem 24. In this way, the user can move arbitrarily back and forthbetween the DTMF tone controls that he/she normally uses and the voicecommands that application 16 makes available. Similarly, user 12 is notprevented from speaking to the DTMF-controlled system. For example, ifthe user needs to record a message, or place a call using a “returncall” option on an exemplary DTMF-controlled messaging system, he canspeak and his voice will be carried through the bridge on server 14 tothe DTMF-controlled messaging system.

[0019] As will be discussed in detail below, an aspect of the presentinvention in the capability of application 16 to access more than oneDTMF-controlled system associated with a single user 12. For example, asecond messaging system 28 is illustrated in FIG. 1 and may be accessedby spoken command, e.g., “get my messages from work”, where it is to benoted that user 12 has previously designated a particular mailbox as“work”, such as system 28.

[0020]FIG. 2 illustrates in more detail some of the components utilizedwithin speech server 16 to provide the speech-to-DTMF tone application16 of the present invention. In this case, a single user record 22 isillustrated, as is its interconnection to speech recognition unit 26. Asmentioned above, all incoming voice signals from user 12 pass throughspeech recognition unit 26, which uses well-known techniques totranslate the received voice signals into digital signal messages thatare then used by the rest of the application to perform the desiredfunctions. In this case, user 12 first provides an “identification”message prompt which passes through recognition unit 26 and is used tolocate the proper user record 22 in application 16. Additional passwordinformation may be required, for security reasons, but is not necessaryto implement the system of the present invention. A “user ID” field 30and password field 32 are both shown in the exemplary record 22 of FIG.2. Record 22 includes, for each DTMF-controlled system associated withuser 12, various fields of information required to access the particularsystem and provide the desired DTMF tones. An exploded view of one suchset of fields is illustrated in FIG. 2, in this case associated withvoice messaging system “A” of user 12 (which may be, for example,message system 24 as shown in FIG. 1).

[0021] In accordance with the present invention, application 16retrieves the dial-out telephone number associated with messaging system“A”, as stored in field 36 of record 22, and initiates a telephone callto that messaging system. If further tones are required to access user12's account in system “A”, those tones may be stored in field 38 ofrecord 22 and used by application 16 to access the proper voice mailaccount of user 12. Once a call to messaging system “A” has beenestablished, application 16 will bridge the incoming call from user 12with this call so that user 12 can begin to retrieve the storedmessages. Application 16, in accordance with the present invention, will“stay on the line” during the message retrieval process, “listening” forpredetermined voice prompts from user 12 and then translating thesecommands into DTMF tones that are then sent to the messaging system tocontrol certain actions within the system. In particular, speechrecognition unit 26 is configured to recognize those commands that arelisted for the specific DTMF-controlled system that is being called, inthe record of the current user. In FIG. 2, field 40 is an example ofsuch a command in the list. Field 40 might contain the word “delete”,the next field might have “play”, the next “reply”, etc. These wordswould form the “vocabulary” of the speech recognition unit for theduration of the call from the specific user to the specificDTMF-controlled system. If the user selected a different system, or if anew user calls in, then the vocabulary for the speech recognition wouldbe re-loaded, based on the command list contained in the record.

[0022] The DTMF tones to be transmitted with each command are alsolisted for each DTMF-controlled system in each user's record. Forexample, if speech recognition unit 26 receives the prompt “delete” fromuser 12, unit 26 will recognize the spoken word “delete” and forward itto application 16. Application 16 will perform a look-up in record 22,locating “deleted” in field 40 (in this particular example) and retrievethe DTMF tones from field 42 (e.g., “*1”) that are associated withdeleting a message. In accordance with the present invention,application 16 will then transmit these tones to messaging system “A”,and the identified message will be deleted. Various other prompts (i.e.,“skip”, “next”, “first”, “end”, etc.) may all be stored as separatefields in record 22 and will be translated in a similar fashion asdiscussed above. As will be discussed below, user 12 can at any timedecide to retrieve messages from other messaging systems (such asmessaging system “B” identified in FIG. 2).

[0023]FIG. 3 contains a flowchart illustrating an exemplary process thatmay be employed in implementing the speech-to-DTMF tones application ofthe present invention in the voice messaging environment. As shown, theprocess begins (block 50) with a user dialing into the speech-to-DTMFtone application, where the dial-in number may be provided to a user whohas subscribed to such “special services” in association with histelecommunication services. Once the application has been accessed, itwill send back a prompt to the user (block 52) requesting identificationinformation, such as in the form of a “user ID” and password. Theresponse information from the user is then checked to determine if theindividual is indeed an “authorized” user who has subscribed to thisparticular service (block 54). If no such user is found, the programwill exit (block 56). Otherwise, the application will use theuser-supplied information to retrieve the proper user record from thedatabase (block 58), where as discussed above, the user record containsall of the information required for the speech-to-DTMF tone applicationto interact with the user's voice messaging systems, including adesignation of a “default” messaging system to retrieve messages from ifa particular messaging system is not designated.

[0024] As shown in FIG. 3, the application will dial out to the user'sselected voice messaging system (block 60), using the dial-out numberstored in the user's record and will bridge together the incoming callfrom the user with that call. Instead of hanging up, however, theapplication will “listen” to the user's speech commands (differentiatingthe user's speech from the voices played back in the received messages)(block 64). If the command is to navigate within the messaging system(i.e., “next”, “delete”, “previous”, etc.), the speech recognition unitin the application will then translate the received command intoassociated DTMF tones (block 66) and the application will forward thesetones to the messaging system. As discussed above, the various voiceprompts that the application is listening for include all of theconventional commands associated with a voice mail system (such as,“next”, “delete”, “skip”, etc.), as the user desires to connect toanother messaging system or hang up. If the user's command is to connectto another DTMF-controlled system (block 70), then the connection to thecurrent system is broken and a call to the new DTMF-controlled system ismade and bridged with the user's incoming call (blocks 62, 60). If thecommand is to exit from the system (block 72), the calls are simply hungup (block 56). If the command is not understood by the system, theapplication will return an error message to the user (block 74).

[0025] Alternatively, the application may be configured to “ignore” anyinput that is not understood. This allows the user to speak to themessaging system without interference from the application. For example,the user may want to forward a message with a comment. TheDTMF-controlled messaging system would then need to record the messagefrom the user. The user could leave a message, and as long as themessage did not include an isolated utterance of a command that theapplication is listening for at that time, it would not interfere withthe message recording.

[0026] In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, a “local”speech-to-DTMF tone application may be included in the user's cellphone, instead of utilizing the network-based arrangement shown inFIG. 1. In such a case, the user ID and password information would notbe necessary. However, such an embodiment would entail the inclusion ofa speech recognition unit and memory unit storing the variousinformation described above. In either case, the system is capable ofproviding “hands-free” access to DTMF-controlled systems and, ingeneral, the subject matter of the present invention is intended to belimited in spirit only by the scope of the claims appended hereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A voice-operated arrangement for interacting witha dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF)-controlled system, the arrangementcomprising a speech recognition unit responsive to voice commands from auser and generating a digital signal representative of a particularreceived voice command; a speech-to-DTMF tones application, responsiveto the digital signal outputs from the speech recognition unit foraccessing a proper user record from a plurality of user records,retrieving dial-out information for the accessed user's DTMF-controlledsystem and completing a communication path between the user and saidDTMF-controlled system, wherein said voice-operated arrangement monitorsthe communication path and retrieves predetermined voice commandsuttered by the user and translates said predetermined voice prompts intoDTMF tones which are thereafter transmitted to said DTMF-controlledsystem.
 2. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein each userrecord includes a spoken voice identification field.
 3. The arrangementas defined in claim 2 wherein each user record further includes a spokenvoice password field.
 4. The arrangement as defined in claim 1 whereineach user record comprises a plurality of different fields for eachDTMF-controlled system associated with that user.
 5. The arrangement asdefined in claim 4 wherein the plurality of different fields for aDTMF-controlled system in a user record comprises a dial-out accessnumber for the DTMF-controlled system and a mapping of a plurality ofvoice commands to an associated plurality of DTMF tone sequences.
 6. Thearrangement as defined in claim 5 wherein the plurality of differentfields further comprises a series of DTMF tones for accessing the properDTMF-controlled system within the user's plurality of such systems. 7.The arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein at least oneDMTF-controlled system is a voice messaging system.
 8. A method forinteracting with at least one DTMF-controlled telecommunications system,the method comprising the steps of: a) accessing, by a user, aspeech-to-DTMF tone application; b) retrieving a proper user record forthe user identified in step a); c) dialing out, by the application, to aDTMF-controlled system included in the user record retrieved in step b);d) bridging together the call between the user and the application andthe call between the application and the DTMF-controlled system; e) inresponse to predefined voice commands uttered by the user and receivedby the speech-to-DTMF tone application, translating said voice commandsinto one or more DTMF tones accepted as commands by the DTMF-controlledsystem; and f) transmitting said translated DTMF tone commands from thespeech-to-DTMF tone application to the DTMF-controlled system.
 9. Themethod as defined in claim 8 wherein in performing step a), the methodcomprises the additional step of authorizing a user by requesting andvalidating a spoken user password.
 10. The method as defined in claim 8wherein the method is used for retrieving messages from a plurality ofdifferent messaging systems associated with a single user, the methodcomprising the further steps of g) querying the user record foradditional DTMF-controlled system fields; and h) repeating steps c)-f)for each additional DTMF-controlled system.